Corban Defeats Northwest, 3-1
SALEM, Ore. - Senior Megan Waunch (Tumwater, Wash.) scored a pair of goals and freshman Sheree Kuehl (Seabeck, Wash.) added her first collegiate goal, as Corban's women's soccer team defeated Northwest University, 3-1, on Saturday at Warrior Field to kick off the athletic action on "Alumni Saturday."
Playing in conditions that felt more like the game was in Chicago rather than the state of Oregon's Capitol City, Corban took advantage of the wind in the opening half and struck for two goals in the opening 20-plus minutes.
Waunch tallied her first goal since the Warriors' 2-1 victory over Western Oregon in the 16th minute when she received a pass from sophomore Marissa Walter (Elk Grove, Calif.) and beat Northwest's keeper with a dribble to the left side. Upon finding nothing but daylight between her and the goal, Waunch decided to unloaded a rolling shot that went into the net in the lower right corner for her 6th goal of the season.
Less than five minutes later, Waunch scored her second goal of the game (7th of the season) off a pass from sophomore Hillary Abraham (Canby, Ore.). Abraham started the play by sending a through ball onto Waunch past all the Eagle defenders before Waunch cracked her fifth shot of the opening half into the back of the net.
Holding onto its two-goal advantage for the remainder of the half, Corban switched fields for the final 45 minutes and watched as Northwest began to put together one offensive attack after another. Knowing that a goal would boost the spirits of the visitors from Kirkland, Northwest got its opportunity in the 65th minute when Corban's junior goalkeeper Karyn Allen (Merlin, Ore.) committed a foul inside the penalty area forcing the game's only penalty kick. The Eagles' Shauna Marshall stepped up to the challenge and calmly put her shot into the lower left corner of the net, as Allen dove the opposite direction.
Despite being out-shot by three (6-3) over the game's final 45 minutes, Corban capitalized on one of its few offensive attacks as freshman Katie Hanson (Salem, Ore.) lofted a pass up over the defense and onto an awaiting Kuehl, who tapped home the game's final goal in the 84th minute to give the Warriors a little breathing room.
Even though she picked up her seventh win of the season via a mere two saves, Allen had her scoreless streak snapped at 264-plus minutes. Meanwhile, Northwest's Jasmine Yeldon registered a game-high five saves in 90 minutes between the pipes for the Eagles.
With the victory, Corban pushes its winning streak to three games and improves to 8-7-0 overall, 5-2-0 in Cascade Collegiate Conference play. Meanwhile, Northwest falls to 1-10-4 overall, 1-5-2 in CCC action. The Warriors are next in action on Friday, October 12th, when they host the Hustlin' Owls of Oregon Tech in Cascade Collegiate Conference play beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Warrior Field.